Website Templates for Restaurants: UK Costs and Limits
Restaurant website templates get you live fast and keep the first bill low. They rarely handle real menus, table bookings, allergens and local search as well as a site built around how you actually take orders. This guide sets out UK prices, what each platform does, and where a template stops being enough.
What a restaurant template usually gives you
Most restaurant themes ship with a homepage hero, a photo gallery, an About block, a contact form and a menu layout that looks like a list of dishes. That is enough for a pop-up or a takeaway that only needs a phone number and opening hours. It is not enough if you change specials daily, run two sittings, need allergen flags, or want people to book a table without calling.
Expect to spend time swapping dummy photos for your own, rewriting copy, and checking the menu on a phone. Template demos are shot on wide screens with professional food photography. Your phone photos and a 40-item menu will look different.
Platforms and typical UK prices
These are what small UK restaurants actually pay in 2026, before you add a designer. Annual billing is cheaper than month-to-month. VAT is extra on most plans.
| Platform | Typical plan | What you get | Watch-outs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | £17 - £27 a month | Restaurant templates, basic menu, Wix Bookings or OpenTable widget | Menu edits are fiddly; site can feel slow on 4G |
| Squarespace | £16 - £33 a month | Strong food photography layouts, simple events | Booking is usually a third-party embed; limited menu structure |
| WordPress + theme | £40 - £150 theme once, hosting £8 - £25 a month | Restaurant themes (often with Elementor), more control | You or someone else must update WordPress, plugins and PHP |
| Shopify | £25 - £80 a month plus apps | Best if you sell merch or meal kits as well as bookings | Overkill for a sit-down site with no shop |
Add-ons eat the saving. A decent booking tool (OpenTable, ResDiary, TheFork, or a Squarespace/Wix booking add-on) is often £30 - £80 a month. A cookie banner, email forms and a proper SSL setup are usually included now, but premium photo packs and extra staff logins are not.
What templates handle poorly
Menus. A static PDF or a long scrolling list breaks on phones and is useless for allergens, vegan flags and daily specials. Guests want to tap a dish, see the price and the dietary notes without pinching the screen.
Bookings. Embedding a widget is easy. Making the widget match your deposit rules, large-party cut-off and Sunday lunch sittings is not. If the widget fails, people ring you at 7pm on a Saturday. That is a staffing cost, not a web cost.
Speed. Food photos are heavy. Uncompressed template galleries regularly sit at 4 - 8MB. Google scores that poorly on mobile, which is where most local searches happen. Compress images to under 200KB each and keep the homepage under 2MB if you can.
Local search. Templates rarely set opening hours, menu schema or a consistent NAP (name, address, phone) that matches Google Business Profile. If those three do not match, Maps will show the wrong times.
Pages a restaurant site actually needs
- Homepage with location, hours, a clear Book or Order button, and one strong photo.
- Menu that can be updated without a developer, with prices and allergens.
- Book a table (or Order for collection) with rules you actually use.
- About / kitchen, short and specific, not stock copy about passion.
- Find us: map, parking, nearest station, accessibility notes.
- Private dining or events if that is real revenue, not a maybe.
Skip a blog unless you will write monthly. Empty news pages look worse than none.
Template, DIY or someone else
A template you edit yourself is the cheapest route if you have 8 - 15 hours and will keep the menu current. Budget £200 - £600 in year one for the plan, a domain (£10 - £15) and maybe a freelancer to fix the booking widget.
A one-off custom or semi-custom build in the UK for a small restaurant typically sits around £1,500 - £4,000 depending on menu complexity, booking integration and photography. You then pay hosting and updates separately, often £15 - £40 a month if you do not want to log in yourself.
Pay-monthly website plans exist for small businesses that cannot put a few thousand pounds down. You pay a setup fee, then a monthly price that covers hosting, updates and ongoing management so the site is genuinely hands-off. That suits kitchens that will not touch WordPress after service. I offer both a one-off build and that pay-monthly route; exact figures are on arlowebstudio.com rather than here, because plans change.
Trade-off is simple. Templates are cheap until you fight the menu or the booking rules. Custom costs more up front (or monthly) and should load faster, match your hours, and not break when WordPress updates. Neither route replaces Google Business Profile, good photos, or answering the phone.
Practical checks before you buy a theme
- Open the demo on your phone on 4G, not office Wi-Fi. Time how long the first photo takes.
- Ask how you change a dish price at 4pm without calling a developer.
- Test the booking flow with a dummy booking, including a cancellation.
- Confirm the theme supports structured menu data or at least clean headings Google can read.
- Check who owns the domain. It should be in your name, not the template seller’s.
- Budget for photography. Phone shots of plated food in mixed lighting rarely sell a table.
If two or three of those checks fail, a template will cost you more in lost covers than it saves on the subscription.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a free restaurant template?
Free WordPress themes and Wix starter plans exist, but they usually strip bookings, hide your own domain, or show ads. For a trading restaurant the saving is a few pounds a month and the risk is looking unfinished. A paid plan on a known platform is the realistic floor.
Do I still need Google Business Profile if I have a template site?
Yes. Most people searching for dinner nearby never click through to a website first. Keep hours, photos, menu and phone identical on the Profile and the site. A template does not replace that listing.
Should the menu be a PDF?
No for the main menu. PDFs are slow on phones, bad for accessibility and invisible to search. Use a proper page or a booking platform’s menu tool. A PDF can sit as a print download for regulars who want the wine list on paper.
How often should a restaurant site be updated?
Hours and the menu whenever they change. Photos when the room or the offer changes. Software and plugins at least monthly if you are on WordPress. A neglected template with last Christmas’s hours will lose you Saturday nights.
Is Shopify sensible if I only take table bookings?
Usually not. You will pay for ecommerce features you do not use and still embed a booking widget. Shopify makes more sense if you also sell hampers, merch or meal kits at any volume.